Scars
by Bareri-San
Summary: Chelsea almost lost her life in a serious accident. Heavy scarring, the loss of a leg and the loss of a loved one have had a serious impact on her view of life. Will a certain cold, anti-social cowboy give her the spark that she needs?    ChelseaxVaughn
1. Prologue: My Calling

**Author's Note:**

Hey guys, long time no see! Gosh, I can't even remember the last time I was on FanFiction. Probably about two or maybe even three years ago now. I did have a SasukexSakura fanfic up but I've long since gotten over the series, so I probably won't be continuing that any time soon, especially since all the documents for that story were on my old computer which decided to die.

Anyway, I've just recently gotten back into the Harvest Moon series for the 100th time and felt inspired enough to write a fanfic about one of my favourite pairings; Chelsea and Vaughn!

I apologize for the horrible writing, it's been ages since I've actually sat down and written anything solid. orz

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><p>Harvest Moon Fan Fiction<br>Scars

Prologue- My Calling

I have to admit, I did not expect to find my life's calling to be working as a farmer. Especially when I had been officially declared a cripple. You see, I lost my right leg when the ship I was on caught fire and exploded. I have quite a few other 'war' scars but I tend to keep them hidden. Hobbling around with a wooden peg as a leg drew enough attention to me. Another thing I must confess, I honestly did not think I would pull through the initial recovery stage. When I think back, I must have seemed like a husk of a person to everyone that knew me. Especially when compared to the attitude I held towards life nowadays.

I learned so many lessons over the last four years that I was the rancher of Sunshine Island's only farm. I learned that you can find happiness in the most unsuspecting places. I also learned that giving up because of a small obstacle is not an option, no matter what the circumstances are. But enough of me rambling on about life lessons that I learned. I'm here to tell you a story. Before you go on thinking I'm an old lady, I'm still young and thriving and living life to the fullest. I just thought you'd like to hear an interesting story.

That is why you're here, isn't it?


	2. Chapter 1: Scarred, Broken Girl

Harvest Moon Fan Fiction  
>Scars<p>

Chapter One- Scarred, Broken Girl

Every inch of my body was suffering an incredible level of pain. My face was burning, my arms were throbbing immensely and my leg felt like someone was dropping anvils on it. The worst thing was, I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but it felt like an invisible force was preventing me from doing so. I couldn't even move and yet, I could still vaguely hear what was happening around me.

"…_Her right leg is too damaged. It's going to have to come off…"_

"_I agree…"_

"…_Get the gas ready…"_

Something cool was placed over my mouth and after a few seconds I completely blacked out. Everything that happened shortly afterwards felt like a blurry mess. At some point I woke up to find that I was on an operating table and saw someone sawing my leg off from below the knee. I must've blacked out again because my vision disappeared and my entire body was slowly but surely going numb. I didn't mind this feeling… it was far better than what I was experiencing before. It felt… peaceful. After drifting for what felt like an eternity, I started to feel flickers of warmth tickling inside my chest. It felt nice at first but it started getting hotter… and hotter… and hotter until it became to hot that it was uncomfortable. The heat exploded and blazed through the rest of my body, the pain I was experiencing before came flooding back.

"_Quick! We need to stop the bleeding or we'll lose her again!"_

"…_almost done, we just need to treat this burn now…"_

"…_okay that's a wrap... I think it's safe to say that this operation was a complete success!"_

I heard a short round of applause and the sound of steel clattering against a hard surface, I assumed that they were cleaning up and left it at that. I felt something pulling me back into unconsciousness and I was more than happy to consent. Even though all I did was float around my thoughts while hearing muffled voices around me, I felt mentally drained. At least this time around it didn't feel like I would never wake up again although I was not looking forward to the pain I was going to be in when I actually woke up.

_Two years later…_

White, white and even more white. I was starting to get sick of seeing the bland hospital walls and the monotonous doctors droning on about what medication I needed to take and the possibilities of needing rehabilitation because of having my leg amputated. It was the same everyday; wake up and have breakfast and medication, lay in my hospital bed and do nothing but stare at the blank walls for hours while waiting for my next check-up, go to rehab, have dinner and then go back to bed. This process had been repeated for the last year and a half since I woke up.

Getting visitors was out of the question for me. I had no friends and my parents perished when the ship I was on sunk. I did have someone that I shared a room with for a bit, one of the sweetest boys that I had ever met in my short life. We used to talk about what we wanted to do once we were finally out of this dreary place. He was the only person who didn't gawk at my grotesque appearance and he regularly complimented me much to my embarrassment. After a few weeks of talking, we eventually realized that we liked each other more than friends and jumped into a relationship without a second thought. It was the happiest year of my life; we even agreed that we would buy a farm and live together once we were both out. For once I had hope in my heart. That all changed one fateful winter morning. You see, this boy had arrhythmia and he suffered from a heart attack. He did not recover from it. After what happened, I locked away all my emotions and blocked everyone out. I pretty much became a shell of who I was.

"Chelsea." A familiar voice said, it was my regular doctor, Dr Trent.

Dr Trent came over to my bed and sat on the chair beside it, I just kept staring at my hands. I really did not want to talk to anyone at the moment. Dr Trent had long since grown used to my attitude and proceeded with talking.

"I've come to give you some good news Chelsea; you're being released from hospital soon."

I glanced up at him. "I don't really care anymore," I croaked. "I lost my reason for wanting to leave here."

Dr Trent grimaced and started to look through some papers he had in his hand, he stopped at a particular one and handed it to me. "I had a feeling you'd say something like that so I did some digging for you." He gave me a warm smile.

I looked down at the piece of paper that he gave me, it was a letter and boy did my eyes pop when I saw who it was from.

_Dear Chelsea,_

_By the time you get this letter from Doctor Trent, I won't be here anymore. But I have a few things I wanted to tell you. Firstly, remember that dream we had? The one where we'd have our own farm? Well I went ahead and purchased the one on the Sunshine Islands just for you._

_Secondly, I will always love you from the bottom of my heart. As hard as it is to say this, you must move on. Lingering on lost love is never healthy for one's soul and the last thing I want is for you to harm yourself in order to see me again. I would rather see you alive and well, living a happy life. As selfish as it is for me to say this, do it for me… please?_

_Lastly, live. I want you to live a happy and fulfilling life Chelsea. I know you can do it. You WILL find someone special to share your life with in the future, I know you will. It'd be a sin against humanity if a guy turned away a girl as beautiful as you are._

_Yours truly, Jake_

I felt tears well up in my eyes as I finished reading the letter. It was short but it had so much meaning behind it. No, I had to be strong. I needed to move on with my life… but why did it have to be so damn hard?

"When am I being released from hospital?" I asked, trying pretty damn hard to stop my voice from breaking.

Doctor Trent stood up from the chair and made his way to the open door. He looked back over his shoulder at me and smiled again.

"You can leave next week if want. You're in excellent condition, the only problem is that we still haven't been able to get a hold of the prosthetic leg for you and it doesn't look like we will be any time soon."

"I'm sure I could farm while sitting in a wheelchair, can't be too hard." I smiled weakly.

Trent chuckled quietly. "I'll organize the transportation to the dock and the ticket to Sunshine Islands tonight for you. I'll get one of the nurses to help you pack when the time comes." With that he left the room.

Once I left to my own devices again my mind began to wander in all sorts of directions. I started to think about the contents of the letter. Moving on was going to be hard. So very, very hard, but it had to be done.

Quite frankly, I didn't want to do it. Who on earth would want to be with a broken, scarred girl like me?


	3. Chapter 2: Winter Farm

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone that added this story to their favourites, it means a lot to me. ^_^  
>And thank you very much to forevergone123 for the review!<p>

Anyways, I apologise for the slowness but I promise I'll get the story moving quickly next chapter! Hopefully... orz

And since I'm such a scatterbrain and I forgot to do this for the last two chapters, I shall add the disclaimer.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters (except for Jake) or Harvest Moon, they rightfully belong to Natsume.

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><p>Harvest Moon Fan Fiction<br>Scars

Chapter Two- Winter Farm

I hated my life, simple as that. I got an infection in my right leg which resulted in me having to stay at the hospital for an extra three seasons so that it could be treated and healed. Lady Luck really had something against my health. Only upside was that my prosthetic leg came in before I was due to leave although Doctor Trent advised that I wait for a couple more seasons before I actually use it. I was restricted to using a wheelchair and nothing else. Once I was finally away from the hospital, I actually felt glad to finally be free. At least I had more time to think about certain memories. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Jake was right. I needed to move on with my life. Sure all the scars I had would probably intimidate most people, but I'm sure I'd find someone who would embrace for me for who I am. I guess moving out to a farm would be the best thing for me. I'd be away from the hospital where so many memories lingered, I'd turning over a new leaf, a new life.

Before I went back to my cabin underneath the deck, I decided to take in the sights to calm my nerves. Despite the bad experiences I had associated with the sea, it was quite a beautiful sight. The sun had started to set when we set sail, making the water as far as the eye could see glimmer brilliantly. I couldn't help but indulge in taking a deep breath in to experience the fresh air. The salty and fishy scent immediately invaded my nose. It was strong but not overpowering, definitely a lot better than the smell sterile hospital rooms seemed to give off or the burn victim ward for that matter. The thought of being back in the Burn Ward made me shudder violently, it was a place—and smell— that you couldn't easily forget. I gave my head a vigorous shake and focused on enjoying my short trip on the boat as much as I could. As the last of the sun sunk into the horizon for another day, I decided to go back to my room to get some rest before we docked at Sunshine Islands.

Quite frankly, I was still feeling extremely depressed. Although the aspect of moving to a remote island community to run a farm did sound fun and I acted tough and mentally prepared to move on from all that I had lost in the past two—almost three— years… I was feeling the opposite. My chest felt heavy, like large stones were being placed inside one by one, increasing the weight as they were added. My eyes felt sore and dry from all the crying I had done over the last couple of years and my body just did not want to move. It wanted to stay limp until I drew my last breath and started rotting away. It wouldn't matter if I did die though; I had no one to grieve for me… I was all alone. All that I had now were strangers who gawked at my disfigured appearance like they had a right to. Those kinds of people made me feel sick to my stomach. I also had disfiguring scars that snaked up and around my body like the fire that caused them and a stump that used to be my right leg as constant reminders of the pain I went through. I buried my face into my pillow, not really wanting to cry again today and I forced myself to go to sleep.

I had a big day ahead of me. Oh the joy.

**oOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"_The S.S Turnip will be docking at the Sunshine Islands in ten minutes time. If you are planning on visiting here please make your way to the deck with your luggage as soon as possible. We thank you for using our services and hope you will travel with us again shortly. Have a nice day._" The nasally voice chimed over the loudspeakers throughout the ship.

I remained seated near the stairs; there were still 10 minutes before I needed to make my way to the deck. I didn't have any luggage with me either so I had no point in scurrying up there like it was the single most important thing I had to complete. Why people raced up there like it was a silent competition they needed win I will never know. In my opinion, it was pretty stupid. I pulled my hat down to hide my face and observed my surroundings while I waited. Most of the passengers that passed me didn't have luggage on them, so I assumed that they were running up to the deck just to see the islands. There wasn't really anything special about the view. It was just a bunch of sandy hills poking out of the water with old houses on them. Not really anything fascinating about that.

"Can't I get someone to bloody help me up these stairs?" A woman yelled.

Her voice sounded so strained, annoyed and hoarse that it piqued my interest. When I looked up, I saw a young woman sitting in a wheelchair. Her back was turned to me, so all I could see was her chestnut brown hair tamed by a tomato-red bandanna and thin shoulders covered by an orange flannel shirt. The rest of her was concealed by the wheelchair she was in. I was surprised and frustrated that everyone that walked passed her just gave her an apologetic glance and kept walking. No wonder she was getting annoyed. Although I preferred to avoid conversation with other people at all costs if it wasn't related to business, I couldn't just sit here and do nothing. While I was caught up in my own train of thought I didn't notice that she had spun around and was now glaring at me. I glanced up at her and had to stop myself from gasping.

The woman sitting in front of me was dangerously thin. The clothes on her back hung on her like sheets of cloth used to cover old furniture. There were shadows underneath her eyes, it made her look tired and worn out from a long-winded battle. There were two other things that caught my attention the most. First thing was the fact that her right leg was severed just under the knee, scars snaked up from the bottom of the stump like vines. The second thing was the burn scars that seemed to cover the majority of her body. They snaked across her face and bare arms like the fire that had caused them and some of them stretched across her thin frame like stretched leather.

"Can I help you ma'am?" I finally spoke up.

She furrowed her eyebrows together and stared at me for a few moments in silence; she then opened her mouth and spoke. "Well since you're sitting there like a lazy-ass cowboy with nothing better to do, can you please help me carry my wheelchair up the stairs?" My eye twitched when she called me cowboy. She certainly had a sharp tongue. Irritation crept up on her face the longer I took to answer back. She threw her arms up in the air. "Look cowboy, not exactly a hard question to answer." She snapped. I remained silent.

The young woman sighed in frustration and looked at me. I dunno if it was the blinding sapphire blue colour of her eyes or something else, but it really felt like she was _looking_ at me and quite frankly it made me feel uncomfortable. "Look mate, sorry about before. I'm just tired and annoyed and I have to get off at this island. I can't do any physical exertion for a few days so I would be really, _really_ grateful if you could help me out here." She pleaded.

Now it was my turn to sigh in frustration. "_She ain't gonna leave me alone until I say yes_'I thought to myself. I dusted my hands and got up from my seat, when I looked up the young lady was already over at the stairs. She was skilfully balancing on her one good leg with her rucksack slung over her shoulder. The wheelchair was resting against the first step of the stairs, waiting for me to pull it up. I brushed the imaginary dust off of my hands again and stood behind the wheelchair and got a good grip on the handles. I had to admit, the wheelchair was certainly _heavy_, it felt like I was trying to lift a small cow up the stairs.

"How on earth did you get this on the ship?" I grunted in between each step. I looked over to see the young woman lifting herself up each step. She seemed to put all of her concentration into alternating between balancing on each small step and pushing all of her weight onto the rails as she lifted herself up. '_Okay, never mind then_' I sighed inwardly. The rest of the small trip was mostly in silence, except for a few grunts from me as I was lifting the weighty wheelchair up to the top. The young lady muttered thanks when we got to the deck, hopped into her wheelchair and wheeled off to the small crowd of passengers waiting for the ship to dock.

I wasn't usually the kind of guy to be interested in women, but that woman was certainly interesting. With a grin playing on my lips I tipped my hat and made my way out onto the deck when they docked at Sunshine Islands.

**OOoOoOoOoOoOo**

"Excuse me miss, can you tell me where Taro lives?" I asked. The young pale girl hid behind her glasses as she stared at me with nervous brown eyes. She tucked a stray piece of black hair behind her ear before the answered me.

"U-um… just keep going straight ahead across the bridge…" She muttered. My goddess this girl was shy, kind of hard to believe she was the same age as me. "A-and h-his house s-should be at the end o-of t-the island. H-hard t-to mi-miss it…"

"Thanks Sabrina." I gave her a small smile and a nod and went on my way.

Thanks to Sabrina's directions, I found Taro's house. Kind of sad that I needed directions on such a small island but knowing how directionally challenged I could be I did not want to take my chances. As I wheeled to the old house at the end of the dirt path at the end of the island I saw two figures standing off to the side. From the looks of their peachy hair and similar facial features, they looked like twins. It sounded like they were arguing about who was meant to do what chores around their house. They jumped when I cleared my throat, slightly embarrassed that I had witnessed their bickering.

"I heard that Taro lives here." I gave them each a glance.

The girl of the twins was the first to speak up. "And who the heck might you be?" She had a sharp tongue. Well two can play at that game.

"Who the heck am I? I'm Chelsea. I'm supposed to be the island's new rancher but I'm a tad bit late. You see… I had a bit of an accident. Got knocked out for a while."

This time the boy came forward. "Sorry about my sister…" he said shyly. "I'll go get grandpa, he'll be glad to see you're finally here." I smiled at the boy; he seemed to blush from that. "May I get your names before I talk to your grandfather?" The girl went to open her mouth but her shy brother cut her off, this caused her to glare at him in annoyance. "I'm Elliot and this is my sister, Natalie." I reluctantly held out a hand to shake both of theirs. Elliot was more than happy to return the gesture but Natalie just glared at me. After exchanging a few bits of small talk amongst each other Taro seemed to appear out of thin air and whisked me away to give me a tour of the place.

Thankfully, we skipped the pleasantries. They were pointless considering the fact that we'd met before. Taro led me down a dirt path north of his family's home and across the old bridge that connected two islands together.

"This Chelsea is your new home!" Taro said enthusiastically, he puffed his chest out in pride. I couldn't help but giggle when the turkey flap on his neck wobbled from side to side during the gesture and thankfully enough, he didn't hear me.

"Holy crap, it's huge!" I gasped. Okay, the house itself was crappy and old and not to mention very tiny, but the plot of land itself was huge. The grass was lush and green and no trees were in sight. Off to the left of my new house was a tiny stream that stretched out into a small puddle of a pond, it looked like my only source of fresh water for a while, and I took note of it and kept looking around. I didn't see the end of it but behind the house was a field that was currently filled with sticks, stones and weeds. Oh boy, there were A LOT of weeds. I snapped out of my daze from trying to take in all the new sights I was seeing when Taro started talking again.

"Well since you'll be living here, have you got a name for the farm?" He looked at me expectantly.

I pondered the thought for a few moments. A name for the farm…I had forgotten how bad I was at naming things. I rubbed the back of my head and gave Taro a sheepish laugh. "I can't really think of one right now. Mind if I have a think over it for a while? Inspiration might hit me when I have some time to think about it." The wrinkles in Taro's face smoothed out and he nodded calmly at me.

"Alright I understand. For now we'll just call it Sunshine Islands Ranch, is that okay with you?"

"Whatever floats your boat." I blew air through my lips and started tapping a rhythm on my lap

A few moments of silence passed without much occurring, there were only glances around the farm, admiring the scenery. Taro was the first to break the silence.

"Well, I better get going and let you get some rest. I bet it's been a long day." He brushed the blades of grass that had managed to stick onto the front and back of his overalls.

"It has been a long day…" _And a long two years_, I added on in my head.

We said our parting words and Taro left the farm, once he was out of sight I let out a rather heavy sigh and let my shoulders slump. As if by magic, sleepiness had started to creep up on me and I was more than happy enough to be obliged in going to bed. I wheeled myself to the door of my new house and made my way inside. I didn't really care about looking at how the single room house looked right now, because the bed in the corner was calling me with its siren call. I wheeled myself over to the small single bed nestled in the corner and almost threw myself into the surprisingly plush covers of the bed. As I drifted off to sleep, my thoughts about the day began wandering.

I finally moved to the farm that Jake had bought for me. Even though he was long gone I still felt like I had to repay him somehow, then at that moment an idea hit me. _Winter Farm…_ I thought slowly, savouring each syllable. The name was appropriate in my opinion. We had met in winter, our birthdays were in winter and we had sadly—and regrettably— parted in winter. The name, although simple, felt like it was honouring him and the times that we spent together. A smile playing on my lips, I let sleep wash over my body and drag me gently off to dreamland.

Tomorrow was a new day with new experiences. Tomorrow marked the beginning of my new life and the eventual passing of my old one. It was going to be tricky but I was sure that'd I'd pull through.


End file.
